No Smiles Today: Learn Odia - Story for Children and Adults "BookBox.com"

Shanti was a happy girl. No one had seen her sad or quiet.
Then one day she went very quiet. What had happened to Shanti?
Shanti and Arun
were good friends.
They had so much fun together.
They shared secrets in class.
They ran races on the way home.
Shanti was always cheerful.
One day,
Shanti walked into the classroom slowly.
Her head was bent down.
She looked sad.
“Did someone scold you?”
asked Arun.
Shanti shook her head.
She sat down
and did not look up.
She did not answer ‘Present!’
when Miss Sona called her name.
Miss Sona called again,
louder this time,
“Shanti Kumari!”
Shanti raised her hand.
“Do you have a sore throat?”
her teacher asked.
Shanti shook her head.
Her cheeks were red
and it looked like
she had a fever.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Miss Sona asked.
Shanti nodded,
still not daring to look up.
“Why does Shanti look so sad?”
“Is your little brother okay?”
“Is your puppy okay?”
“Is your grandmother okay?”
Shanti kept nodding her head
to each of her friends.
She did not look up.
Arun wanted to make her smile.
He had an idea!
He took out
something from his bag.
As he ran to show it to Shanti,
it slipped out of his hands.
Shanti saw something
flying towards her
and she grabbed it.
It was a BIG, green,
rubber frog!
Shanti's eyes flew open.
She opened her mouth to laugh.
That’s when Arun
and her friends saw
why she had not smiled
or talked all day!
Four of her front teeth
were missing!
Story: Cheryl Rao
Translation: Cosmic Sounds
Narration: Cosmic Sounds
Illustrations: Bullfish Labs
Music: Rajesh Gilbert
Animation: BookBox
This story has been provided for free under the CC-BY license by Pratham Books, which is a not-for-profit children's books publisher with a mission to see "A book in every child's hand". Visit www.prathambook... and blog.prathamboo... to know more. Artwork has been adapted from the original book while the animation, music and narration have all been done by BookBox. This story artwork is originally illustrated by Saurabh Pandey.
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